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the last word with stephanie ruhle starts now. arizona republicans block a repeal of that 1864 abortion law again. i will speak with governor katie hobbs. and wonder what a second trump term would look like? we have the play book and every voter should see it. as the 11th hour gets underway this wednesday night. good evening once again. i'm stephanie ruhle live from rockefeller center here in new york city. and we are now 202 days away from the election and donald trump will be back in a manhattan courtroom tomorrow for day three of his new york election interference trial. this was a day all for the court while the judge dealt

with other cases but jury selection will resume in the morning a few hours from now. so far, seven jurors have been officially selected. a total of 18 will hear the case. the former president spent a good part of this morning complaining about the jury process. he said his lawyers should have gotten unlimited chances to strike potential jurors. but that is not how it works. they have exactly the number of chances that the law allows. no more, no less. equal treatment. now donald trump is also saying that he is willing to take the witness stand in this trial. and district attorney alvin bragg revealed his plan to cross examine trump. if the former president decides that he does want to testify. that list includes his half a billion civil fraud judgment and the civil verdicts finding him liable for defamation and

sexual abuse of writer e. jean carroll. the judge will decide exactly what the jury will be allowed to hear. >> basically go through the judge rules on what things the defendant can be cross examined on, prior offenses, prior litigation, prior stuff that goes to the defendant's credibility. he is not going to like listening to all that. >> meanwhile, trump's republican allies in congress suffered a major blow this afternoon. house gop's impeachment of homeland security secretary alejandro mayorkas died in the senate. and things are not looking great for speaker mike johnson who just a few days ago was huddling up with trump at mar-a- lago. but now, he risks losing his job. johnson has outraged the far right again by pushing separate bills to help ukraine, israel, and taiwan.

the aid package has a $5 billion price tag. with that, let's get smarter with the help of our leadoff panel tonight. nbc news washington correspondent joins us, and a new political contributor barbara mcquaid is here. a veteran federal prosecutor and former u.s. attorney for the eastern district of michigan. her new must read book, attack from within. howdies information is sabotaging america. it is out now. barb, you know we got legal questions tonight. beyond donald trump complaining unjustly about how the legal process works, fox news is now making up fabricating things about potential jurors and donald trump is taking these fabrications and now pushing them out and spreading them. how are we not right back in gag order territory? because that is going to pollute the american people and potential jurors out there. all these things they are

saying, they're not true. >> absolutely one of the posts that donald trump made today was suggesting that he said liberals are lying to try to sneak their way onto the jury just so they can convict him. the gag order i think covers this. i think that if i were working with alvin bragg, tomorrow morning when i get back to court, i would be arguing this is conduct covered by the gag order. it included statements directed at jurors or potential jurors and so i think when you make disparaging comments about people who are in that jury pool, that is covered by the gag order. for the reasons you say, stephanie. one is preserving the integrity of the process. but also protecting the jurors themselves if people get wind of who they are and believe they have said things that are false to harm donald trump, those people could themselves find themselves harassed, threatened or attacked. i would be very aggressive on jumping on this tomorrow. >> the washington host has a

pretty extraordinary piece out that is describing this trial as sort of a symbol of donald trump's complete break with new york city. right? the place where he built his name. i was thinking about it last night walking up fifth avenue. past trump tower. when you think new york city in the 1980s , it's like donald trump in a limo. this trial buries that image. >> yeah, i have always thought if there is one kind of rose bud to understanding trump's psychology, it is his new york roots and his specific form of status anxiety that he experienced as a young man growing up in the outer boroughs and i say that seriously. if you look through the trump literature, the speeches he has given. the books he has written over the years, he constantly returns to this idea that as a

young man growing up in a wealthy family, he was always a little bit ashamed that his dad had made his fortune in queens and brooklyn. and he always wanted to go to manhattan where he felt like that is where everything was happening. and as soon as he could, he helped expand the trump empire into manhattan and he really built his entire image around being this sort of figure of manhattan. a tabloid titan. a guy writing in the limo at all the fancy restaurants. and really, he even at the time, among the city's harris aristocrats was treated as an outsider. and that has fueled his revenge march to the white house. and really all of his political career. but, really, this trial, i was struck by it last year when i went to cover his arraignment. this really is kind of the end

of his quest for manhattan's approval in particular. there is no coming back from this. this is a full rejection of him and i think for that reason, it is a personal trial. >> the boy from queens determined to be king. he did leave the white house and led a big life in florida. they went to florida. they went to la. they live large but none of them came back to nyc. the da made it clear that prosecutors plan to press trump on his previous new york cases. if he decides to take the stand. why would they do that? what does it have to do with this case? what does e. jean carroll or the civil fraud case? what does that have to do with election interference? >> it doesn't have much to do for the substance of this case, but it does affect donald trump's credibility as a witness. so this was part of something referred to in new york as a

sandoval hearing. it is a quirk of new york law where they have to give the defendant notice. if you take the stand and become a witness in this case. not just a defendant but a witness, we are going to try to impeach your credibility so the jury can assess your truthfulness. so, to give the defendant that notice, maybe i should change my mind and choose not to testify. and so, there is a hearing where the judge will decide whether the prior acts are admissible. i think a jury is entitled to

hear those things. >> if i'm alvin bragg, wouldn't i want trump to testify? that is open season on a guy who has lied over and over. >> it is a legal requirement. before donald trump has to make a decision about whether he will testify, he is entitled to the notice so he can make an informed choice.

they are asking for a financial cut from their fund raising when they use donald trump's name and or his image. we know a whole lot of candidates rely on their ties to them. how big of a win fall will it be for his campaign if they all have to give him a cut? will they go for this? >> it is an interesting question. you wonder if the candidates will agree to this. he held that fundraiser in florida. his campaign said they raised like 50 million. it is interesting because it is exactly double what president biden and former president obama and clinton said they raise i want to in some ways continue to look at that number and in some ways look at whether that number will pan out. but if you think about the fact that almost every republican

candidate running across the country, they will try to run on the coat tails of former president trump. he is someone who has the base that is excited about him. though it is the republican party, he was able to win almost every single primary. except for the one nikki haley won. it shows you that republican voters, as so many republican candidates are doing across the country. they reminded me that there are some republicans going through state primaries here. so, even though we think that it is something the general election started, it is a reminder a lot of republicans will try to beat off primary challenges by using donald trump's name. this will be a large sum of money if trump is able to convince these candidates to give that money to them. >> it is amazing to me he will take a commission. it is like on the heels of

march madness, he has decided he will get in on the name image likeness game. and make himself some money. but let's go to the hill because i want to play what speaker johnson said tonight. about his plan to put foreign aid bills on the floor. in the next few days. >> i think providing aid to ukraine is important and i'm willing to take personal risk for that and history will judge us. i do not spend time walking around thinking about the motion to vacate. >> he resisted this move until this week when all of a sudden his job is on the line. what is really going on here? >> it is really, really interesting. at first there was this thought that speaker johnson, that republicans wouldn't have the ear they have for kevin mccarthy and he might not have his job on the line.

thank you for putting up this aid bill. it is putting up this interesting moment where we now have the republicans sort of having deja vu. i want to put forward things as a caucus we should be getting behind. and he is not able to get the number of republicans he needs to save his job. so it will be really interesting. especially the way he is talking about this. you play that sound and speaker johnson says he is not worried about the motion to vacate when you have someone like marjorie taylor greene saying we are waving it in your face. if they do get rid of speaker johnson, who is else is going to want this job given the fact they would have run through two speakers of the house because of this motion to vacate. stephanie? >> all right, explain this one

to me. tonight, donald trump met with the president of poland who is a huge supporter of ukraine and a number of foreign leaders over the weeks and months. we know that trump is anti-nato so what exactly is he doing here? >> it is interesting. i think you look at this from the europeans perspective and trump's perspective. from trump's perspective it might be as simple as it looks presidential for him to be meeting with world leaders. if a world leader is coming to him saying we want to meet with you, he will take the meeting. in the case of the polish president, he is a conservative guy. an outspoken trump ally during trump's presidency. you might recall he was the one who floated the idea of naming a military base after trump. fort trump. he was very skilled at flattering trump so trump will take that meeting because this is a world leader who likes him. from the european's

perspective, this is interesting. in europe and a country like poland, there is not a right left split on the question of russia and nato. across the political spectrum, russia is viewed as a serious threat. nato is viewed as essential. they are a good voice for trying to convince trump to back more ukraine funding to get him on board. these are people he sees as friendly. he is not going to listen to somebody like angela merkel. but something like duda coming to him saying look, you should support nato. you should support ukraine. that might get through to him. at least that's the calculation. >> it is safe to say, angela merkel not his jam. >> thank you all for starting us off tonight. it is time for an update of

our djt tracker. how trump's own media stock is doing. we explain to you how trump can still cash in, in a very big way despite the stock price sliding. he owns 80 million shares with more coming but today, trump media had a better day. the stock rose almost 16%. regaining nearly everything it lost. there is little rationale as to why that happened. we will track it and see where the price is going. and more importantly, tell you when there is a big development and why it matters. you can get analysis from me and my colleagues on the msnbc app. when we come back, arizona republicans had a chance to repeal a civil war era abortion ban that even donald trump thought maybe was too much. but what did they do? they blocked it twice. we will get into why and what is next with the arizona

governor katie hobbs. and prices at the pump are on the rise again. what it could mean for the biden campaign but more importantly, we will explain why it is happening. the 11th hour is just getting underway on a wednesday night. . there are some things that work better together. like your workplace benefits and retirement savings. presentation looks great. thanks! thanks! voya provides tools that help you make the right investment and benefit choices so you can reach today's financial goals. that one! and look forward, to a more confident future. that is one dynamic duo. voya, well planned, well invested, well protected. why would i use kayak to compare hundreds of travel vosites at once?ed, i like to do things myself. i can't trust anything else to do the job right. kayak... aaaaaaaahhhh kayak. search one and done. you know, i spend a lot of time

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giving millions of fans, like my dad and me, new ways of catching up on their favorite sport. just this morning, despite a week of empty rhetoric acknowledging the ban hurts

arizona and is too extreme, antiabortion rights politicians chose not to repeal it. >> a abortion rights advocates rallied outside the arizona state house after state republicans blocked another attempt to repeal a civil war era near total abortion ban. democrats in the legislature plan to try again this week. this law is set to take effect in early june. democratic governor of arizona katie hobbs joins us now. thank you for being here, this has blocked twice. why are you hopeful it could pass with democrats bringing it up another time? >> well, i'm not necessarily hopeful. today was the second time since this devastating ruling that reinstates this 1864 total abortion ban that republicans in the legislature have blocked a move to repeal it. and they blocked it not once

today, but twice. they are not just in line with the majority of people in arizona who do not want this draconian ban. they made it clear since this ruling that they want this ban repealed and if republicans in the legislature don't do the right thing, i know that voters are going to hold them accountable this november. >> then why are these republicans doing it? right, they want to be in office. they want to get elected again. if even republicans in your state don't want this ban, what is the rationale they are giving for blocking it? >> well, you would have to ask them that. but from my position, it looks like they are just playing political games with women's lives in arizona and it is beyond unfortunate. we know that this ban is going to have devastating consequences for access to health care. not just for abortion, but across the spectrum of pregnancy. and these republicans are just

playing games. i have called for the repeal of this draconian law since the dobbs decision in 2022. i renewed that call in my state of the state address this january. and they have had a bill that would repeal this law since january. and they have missed every single opportunity to do that. they have no excuses. >> it is extraordinary game strategy. it is a wildly unpopular law. the state attorney general says that she will not prosecute abortion related cases. when and if this goes into place. you have signed an executive order that says county prosecutors must defer to the ag on abortion cases but can people in arizona, those who are going to be in very vulnerable positions, can they count on that? it is confusing at best. >> well i think your question

is exactly the reason we need to repeal this ban. i issued that executive order because it was a tool i had add my disposal and i will do everything i can to protect access to reproductive health care. so that is why i issued the order. but i can't make guarantees about it. we intend the order to protect doctors, patients, anyone who aids in accessing reproductive health care. but there is not certainty. and the best situation all around is if the legislature would repeal this ban. >> what about health care providers in your state? if this 160-year-old law goes into effect, why would obgyns want to have practices in arizona? these are not optional doctors. they are must haves. >> oh absolutely. that is a valid question that i am sure many health care

providers are asking themselves right now. when i was running for this office, i had people tell me if you don't get elected i don't think we will be able to start a family in arizona. it is that uncertain in terms of access to reproductive health care. i have heard stories, so many stories of women who have had just devastating situations. a woman named morgan who spoke at my press conference was pregnant with twins, one of those twins had a complication that was, it wasn't going to survive and it jeopardized the other twin. and she was told she needed to have a selective reduction. and this was before this ban was in place. but so even though that procedure wasn't outlawed there was uncertainty among doctors to get that procedure. she had to go out of state to get it. this was a devastating situation. she was excited about this pregnancy. and carrying both twins to term would have jeopardized the

second one and her. and nobody should be faced with these kinds of choices. this is why politicians just need to be out of this equation. >> just level set with us. is it safe for abortion providers to continue working in your state? >> i stand behind the executive order i issued and the state's attorney general has said she would not prosecute. that doesn't mean that the order won't be challenged. and again, this law should be repealed so we can have the certainty that is needed for people to access and provide that needed health care. >> governor, thank you for joining us tonight. i appreciate it. >> thank you. when we return, more people are hitting the road as we get closer to summer. that is normal. and naturally, that means gas prices go up. and consumers will be quick to blame president biden. why they should be looking

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we know inflation is driving americans crazy. if you are unsure, just call your mother. for many, it is their biggest complaint right now. and because president biden is in the white house, he gets the blame. but over the last few months, one thing he has been pointing to is low gas prices.

but unfortunately, if you look closer, recently, they have been steadily and quietly going up. now, this is a common thing going into the summer. more people drive more. it pushes up demand. and that is normal. but there are other reasons as well. ones that might be more deliberate. and even political. like saudi arabia and russia continuing to cut oil production until june. when oil production is down, prices go up. here to discuss that and more. democratic strategist chuck. a former senior campaign adviser for bernie sanders. a cowboy hat affeccionado. and tim miller is here. former communications director for republican jeb bush. tim, the last thing that president biden wants or needs is rising gas prices. but do you know who wants them? saudi arabia. russia, and their besty besty

best, donald trump. should president biden be explaining this to the american people? because when they look at the price at the pump, they will not think about that. they will just say what's going on, why does my life cost so much? >> i don't know how much explaining about opec is going to do for the president politically. his chief of staff was laser focused on this. every day monitoring gas prices. there were some moves they made. to the strategic oil reserve. there are other levers he could pull, he should pull them. one of the biggest concerns i have had this year, i have several concerns but one of them was exactly what we are talking about now. it is clear that mbs would rather have donald trump in the white house. same with putin of course. and so, there might be some monkey business with oil prices going beyond june into this year. that is something that the white house will have to

contend with. sometimes it feels like maybe they are a little bit shy to want toed a mitt that. they don't want to upset people in the progressive left. they have done a lot for climate. a good story to tell there. but i like to hear the story as well on domestic oil production. >> chuck, what do you think? these prices are not the fault of president biden. tim laid it out. we have the highest oil production in u.s. history. and some overseas oil producers who would sure like to help djt. >> let me be clear that the republicans know how to use this and will use this against joe biden. one of the most brilliant political things i saw done that was very powerful, when i went to the pump, there was a sticker of joe biden with a finger pointing i did that. they were sticking it on gasoline pumps saying he is the reason the gas pump was so

high. when i do focus groups all around the country, i'm one of those old school political consultants who work on campaigns every single day. people talk about gas and groceries because no matter who you are, almost everybody in america every week has to buy gas and groceries and to your point, steph, when it goes up just a little bit, they will blame the person in charge even if he has nothing to do and opec and russia and all of these things, the other side knows it. >> speaking of higher prices, president biden is now calling to triple the tariffs on chinese steel. right? his goal is for us to use more american steel. but that also means we could see higher prices. how does he balance the two things? >> well i think going into an election year, this is a good narrative for him. what happens with these foreign companies is they dump these products on the shores at almost no cost at all and everybody probably knows that in china, steel is subsidized.

what they are trying to do is hurt our market share. i know you get this more than anybody. you don't see a spike immediately. it is something that happens over time. this is a great narrative thing. it is one of the narratives donald trump stole from us that we have to get back and i think that is why you saw the president in pittsburgh today speaking at the steel workers union headquarters. >> president biden put out a new ad today all about american workers. let's watch a piece. >> we listened to four years of donald trump talking about infrastructure because it was a lot of lip service with the previous administration. joe biden delivered on it. i see jobs coming to the area. i see infrastructure fixed up. i see those policies working. you tell me an investment that the previous administration

made that is close to what joe biden has done. >> you think this will resonate with voters because it continues to be amazing that former president trump is sort of able to peel off union workers who support him when president biden has been more pro union than any u.s. president i can think of. >> the presidential election will only be held in about six states in pennsylvania and the midwest are three of those states. auto workers in detroit. steel workers in pittsburgh. this is the perfect ad to run in those three states of wisconsin. michigan, and pennsylvania. it is time to give back the messaging. i have designed the logo on that shirt and also worked. we have to take some of this narrative back if we are getting these hard working men and women back with the party who built the middle class. >> i'm not leaving you without asking. house republicans, on the brink of ousting speaker mike johnson. yet again.

not even six months after they booted mccarthy. what is your take on this chaos? >> these guys are ungovernable. so keep asking me. i have the same answer. they can't govern themselves. they could barely name a post office after donald trump at this point. so that's what's happening at the house. the interesting i think today, and i don't want to be lucy with the football. i'll believe it when i see it. but mike johnson actually sounded like a responsible speaker of the house a couple of hours when he was speaking in front of the press and doing a few interviews. now it is six months too late. but, if there really is a change of tune with democrats' help, he gets this through. and we are able to help ukraine. and that costs him the speakership. that would have been a worthwhile move. i wish he would have done it earlier. there is that much he can do.

the other thing he can do and not do anything policy wise and frankly not help the party. >> i think lucy gets a bad rap. she was always my favorite peanut. tim, chuck, this was your first visit to the 11th hour with us. thank you so much for being here. and tim, it is always a pressure to see you. >> thank you, steph. when we come back, if you cannot imagine a second trump term, well, project 2025 get used to it. get familiar. it paints a vivid picture of what can be in store. do not go to bed. you need to see this. you need to see this.

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this is as good as gold in any garden. if people only knew that it really is about the dirt. you're a dirt nerd. huge dirt nerd. i'm proud of it! [ryan laughs] please pay attention to this. what i'm about to read you is straight up crazy. ready? quote. the department of health and human services should return to being known as the department of life by explicitly rejecting the notion that abortion is health care. and, quote, the department of education should be eliminated because it is part of a woke cartel. these are actual quotes straight from a play book called project 2025. it is a manifesto from donald trump's closest allies from

what he would do starting day one if he wins in november and there is plenty more. weaponnizing the justice department and paving the way for hundreds of thousands of deportations. and so much more after that. if you want to know what a second trump term would look like, it is all in this project 2025 play book. that is why in the days to come, we will be digging into it. highlighting specific passages that every voter should be aware of. tonight, i want to talk to two experts about what project 2025 is. ahmed baba is here. and ruth bengia joins us. author of the book strong man. mussolini to the president. ruth, you have spent a lot of time studying these 900 pages and most people don't know what they are. how would you describe it? >> so they have chosen a very

neutral name. project 2025 to cover up that this is a plan to transform america into an autocracy. government personnel to support autocracy. one of the scary things is there is an existential need to use aggressively use the vast powers of the executive. and that doesn't sound like democracy where the executive branch is famously checked. this sounds like again, an existential need that we must do this or the republic will perish. the fact this is going on, steph, is not normal. you have transition teams that activate after an election. we are way before the election. and there are 100 organizations under the umbrella of the

heritage foundation. thousandsupon thousands of people already being vetted to be trump loyalists to be civil service personnel. and they have a presidential administration academy. so this is done with, as though they expect they will come back to power. and indeed, viktor orban just visited the states. and he didn't go see president biden. he went to kiss the ring of trump and then to the heritage foundation. so it is there like a shadow autocratic government waiting to spring into action. >> what do we need to know? how will this plan fundamentally change the federal government? >> what trump is trying to do is remove and target all the guardrails that prevented his worse impulses in his first term. what we have here is like ruth outlined here, this purging of civil servants that are doing just their day-to-day job and he wants to install these

loyalists and then bring agencies under the umbrella of the executive branch. we are talking about shutting down the fbi. entirely. we are talking about defunding the doj. we are talking about eliminating the department of commerce. bringing the ftc and fcc under the executive branch. and for a president who has already been targeting journalists rhetorically, for him to come and now take these other agencies under the executive branch under the unitarian executive theory, it >> here is what is amazing, though. this plan is not secret. this is a publicly available documents. what does that tell you, ahmed, about these plans?

>> there is a tone of arrogance really that they thought they could write this down, go into a room, and send it out. personally i've been doing a lot of reporting on it. it really just goes to this idea that trump has that he is going to be in this desperate state. right now, he is literally on trial. criminal, hush money trial, as we speak. essentially, they are putting this out there because they think they are smarter than the american people. they think they can put this out here and really rile up the base and get that base corralled around them. they are basically putting out a call because as ruth said, they have already, as we speak, trained and screened ideologically these ideologues, these magna loyalists so that they, as kevin roberts said, can institutionalize trumpism. that is the plan and it is

deeply, deeply concerning. >> you are a historian, ruth. what are some historical conspiracies for this plan? >> sadly, in order to have a culture, a bureaucratic and governance culture that supports autocracy, you have got to have the right people. we have seen this already in the gop. the right people are, of course, the wrong people. the worst people possible. the lawless people. the people who are already corrupt. trump did this, in his first term. he had people in his circle and in his civil service who are already corrupt. for example, so many people who disregarded the hatch act. that is like a contagion. for people who comply with corruption, this is a recipe and starting with, when the fascists did this, they would recruit in prison. they would recruit criminals to be in a civil service because that set the right kind of tone.

and so having these loyalists is not going to produce good governance. because authoritarians are not interested in governance, they are interested in total control, interning a public office into a source of private profit. trump already did a lot of that. he tried that the first time. so this is the kind of giant bureaucratic machine that is already activated to make sure that they can hit the ground running. lastly, that disturbs me that they keep talking about ready to go on day one. there is going to be a lot of chaos if they even try to abolish these major departments like commerce. what is that going to do to business? do they think trump will be great for business? ask them what they think about abolishing the department of commerce. >> business leaders are risk managers. they do not want chaos, they want predictability. they watcom. project 2025 is the opposite of that. we urge people to familiarize

themselves with it. in the coming days and weeks we will be sharing more every night. ahmed, please come back soon. ruth, thank you. when we returned, a different kind of countdown begins. less than 100 days away from the summer olympics. i look at the grand festivities in paris when the 11th hour continues. what straps bold tot and hurtles it into space? boring does. boring makes vacations happen, early retirements possible, and startups start up. because it's smart, dependable, and steady. all words you want from your bank. for nearly 160 years, pnc bank has been brilliantly boring so you can be happily fulfilled... which is pretty un-boring if you think about it.

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tonight. 100 days to the paris olympics. today, a clock on, where else? the eiffel tower, begin ticking down to the open ceremony on july 26th. thousands gathered at the birthplace of the ancient games in olympia, greece, to light the olympic torch. we will spend the next 100 days traveling 3000 miles to the french capital for the countdown is officially on. >> there is an air of interest excitement in paris tonight. 100 days before its first olympics in 100 years. venue is now visible from the eiffel tower. they are set to host the opening ceremony and triathlon. there is security and pollution concerns. >> for every event, you have to look at your plans. >> construction is underway. just a month ago, this wasn't

even here. now there will be seating for 13,000 people. at the historic plaster de la concorde, they are now building venues for things like break dancing and skateboarding. team usa will be there. >> i am just ready to be there in the jersey competing. >> reporter: equestrian athletes will go for gold while writing golden horses. the olympic flag. a massive police operation underway and 45,000 volunteers chosen. >> i found out there was 165,000 applicants and i was picked out of that. i am so excited. >> reporter: paris has never seen anything like it. and in 100 days, we will all get to share in the celebration. keir simmons, nbc news, paris. >> our friend keir simmons and the city of li